dvsn : 宁静中的无名灵魂

Inart,theconfidentgesture,loudorquiet,isofhighestimportance...

（原文来自Pitchfork的Ryan Dombal，Vrigil译）

在这宁静中这儿有一股力量。你可以在D’Angelo的“Untitled”的节拍间隙中找到这股力量；在Prince的“When Doves Cry”的最基本渴望中找到这股力量；在Depeche Mode的“Enjoy the Silence”的悸动中找到这股力量；在Elliott Smit的“Angeles”中找到这股力量，这首歌用简易的弹奏和低声的毒言反驳了音乐产业的过剩。Smith警世的传言也同样被编织在Sept.5th的倒数第二首歌“Angela”中。虽然这位抑郁的创作型歌手dvsn看起来并不像这个精力充沛的R&B项目中明显的参考点，但是专辑的歌声却给出了一种肯定的感觉。他们都了解空虚，为听众留出了空洞，让听众用梦想，渴望，遗憾去填满它。



音乐评论家Ben Ratliff在他的书Every Song Ever中做了笔记：“开阔的空间首先是一个设计的基础部分，无论是在公园，诗还是歌里。”他写道。“然后便是一个符号，一个信号，或是一个标志。”在Drake的OVO Sound登记簿中，dvsn读作“division”（除号），dvsn把这一朴素标志（除号）的想法融入到他们温和的音乐中，还有被这一巨大的除号支配着艺术作品中，他们迄今为止几乎是不露面的。没有影像，没有新闻照片。没有来自他们著名老板的顾客照片。但即使是在the Weeknd的迷雾之后，dvsn的神秘莫测看起来并不像是一个花招，它很自信。它明白，面对无尽的数字化时代，克制和创造力同等重要。



我们确实知道dvsn的一些事情。Sept.5th是由Drake的2个最重要的合作者制作，Paul "Nineteen85" Jefferies和他的导师，Noah "40" Shebib，当然还有Daniel Daley的首秀。这3个男人都是30岁左右，这张专辑谈论了他们作为艺术家的经验——他们来自Toronto（这城市的广播站即使播放流行热单，也不肯播诞生于这个城市的各种伟大的R&B音乐），这是他们作为革新者的坚毅。





也就是说：dvsn听起来整夜都不会面。Jeffries和Daley一起工作至少有六年了，然而他们的早期的合作是没什么价值的Usher仿制品，俗气且不成熟。“在我早期的制作中，我只会将我希望听到的每首单曲分层排序。”Jeffries最近告诉Fader杂志。“把我所有的梦想在一首歌中表现出来。”比起他们（早期的）歌，dvsn的音乐听起来就像是底片，浩瀚无垠且忘我。

Sept. 5th 用当代的声音去探索淫荡的积极意义。这使专辑陷入了一种不稳定状态：它感觉比R&B的后起之秀Tory Lanez和Bryson Tille 更为成人，但这并不像受惠于R&B的传统人物Anthony Hamilton或Jill Scott。如果neo-soul是指90年代的艺术家们从70年代的大师中找灵感，dvsn的neon soul则是把Blade Runner的光泽加在90年代和00年代的经典R.Kelly，Aaliyah和Ciara之上。这不是过时的音乐，而应该是值得尊重的，甚至有些时候挺悦耳。它并没有把性看成是一种社会交易，而是看成是一种严肃的行为——性可以使你看清不存在的事物，性可以成为危险边缘的一处芳香，性可以使你认识到超越自我的这一价值的所在。



Sept. 5th可以解读为一种浪漫的向导，为那些开始审视自己二十多岁的人生，那些正在考虑将自己的一生托付给他人的人指引方向。正如dvsn所说，这将会有很多强烈的感情——懒洋洋的“In + Out”绝对是你想象中的那样——但也稍微有点复杂。“Try/Effortless”使Daley努力将他的骄傲放在一边；“Another One”是一首弄虚作假的歌，只为应付装腔作势的后果。出色的结尾“The Line”是一首7分钟的求婚，继续保留着舒适与爱情的迷幻。“在一切的结束时，我会回到你身边”Daley结束了歌唱，如同洞穴般的广袤中回响着的女声。



这位坚决的匿名者有一些缺点。虽然Prince是个明显的影响，但dvsn几乎没暗示什么变态古怪的性行为。除了专辑的标题之外，这些歌曲中还轻微地缺少一些特性；可能这意味着普遍性，但也可能是缺乏想象力的。“在艺术中，自信的姿态是最重要的，无论它是响亮还是宁静的。”Ratliff写在他的书中。“通过扩展，它背后人类的知识…如果有关的话，那么就是间接关系。”这个组合有足够的智慧与才华，能够避开如今个性优先的音乐文化中几乎每个短板，还能够在吵杂声中找到宁静。这就是自信的表现。

原文：

There's power in quiet, strength in silence. You can find it in the yawning spaces between beats on D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)"; in the skeletal longing of Prince's "When Doves Cry"; in the flickering throb of Depeche Mode's suitably named "Enjoy the Silence"; in Elliott Smith's "Angeles," which countered music industry excess with stark strums and whispered venom. Bits and pieces of Smith's cautionary tale are woven into "Angela," the penultimate track from dvsn's debut album, Sept. 5th, and though the depressive singer/songwriter doesn't seem like an obvious reference point for this lusty R&B project, the sonic nod makes a certain kind of sense. They both know emptiness. They both allow for holes in which listeners can fill in their dreams, desires, sorrows.

In his book Every Song Ever, music critic Ben Ratliff makes note of the intimacy that can arise from spareness. "Open space, whether in a park or a poem or a song, is first an element of design," he writes. "And then it is a sign, a signifier, or a symbol." Part of Drake's OVO Sound roster, dvsn—pronounced "division"—take this idea of austerity-as-symbol to several extremes: in their gaping slow jams, yes, but also in their artwork, which is dominated by big division signs, and their public face, which has thus far been almost entirely faceless. No videos. No press photos. No needy guest shots from their famous boss. But even following in the fog of one-time enigma and fellow Torontonian the Weeknd, dvsn's elusiveness doesn't seem like a gimmick. It feels assured. It understands that, in the face of digital endlessness, restraint is just as important as creation.

We do know a few things about dvsn. Sept. 5th was executive produced by two of Drake's most vital collaborators, Paul "Nineteen85" Jefferies and his mentor, Noah "40" Shebib, and also marks the the proper debut of Toronto vocalist Daniel Daley. All three men are around 30 years old, and the album speaks to their experience as artists—and their resoluteness as R&B innovators who come from a city that still has trouble sustaining a contemporary urban radio station. Which is to say: The dvsn sound did not come together overnight. Jeffries and Daley have worked together for at least six years, and their early collaborations are flimsy Usher knock-offs, gaudy and green. "Early on in my producing, I would just layer on every single sound I wanted to hear," Jeffries recently told Fader. "Getting all my dreams out on just one song." Compared to those tracks, dvsn's songs sound like photo negatives, selfless and vast.

Daley's delivery has matured as well, trading in "Idol"-style runs for sturdy melody lines that service nothing but the song. All of this can be heard on "Hallucinations," in which Daley's featherlight falsetto is often screwed down with effects to literally halt any extraneous embellishments while also offering up more breathing room. On "Too Deep," which lovingly references Timbaland and Ginuwine's 1999 hit "So Anxious," an unnamed female choir gets most of the spotlight, with Daley chiming in for whispered accents here and there. This grown-up musical strategy is also reflected in the way dvsn approach their songwriting raison d'être: sex.

Sept. 5th uses contemporary sounds to explore the positive and meaningful aspects of carnality. This puts the album in a sort of limbo: It feels much more adult compared to the casual, hip-hop-indebted come ons of R&B up-and-comers Tory Lanez and Bryson Tiller, but it's not as indebted to the genre's traditions as artists like Anthony Hamilton or Jill Scott. If neo-soul found 1990s artists taking inspiration from '70s masters, dvsn's neon soul puts a Blade Runner sheen on '90s and 2000s classics by the likes of R. Kelly,Aaliyah, and Ciara. There's no rapping here; the word "bitch" is never uttered. Some of the album's best moments also feature female voices along with Daley's. This is not corny music, but it is respectful, even sweet at times. It treats sex not as a social transaction but a serious act—something that can make you see things that aren't there, that can be a balm for life's rough edges, that can make you realize the worth of looking beyond yourself. These songs are consensual in every sense of the word.

And in that sense, Sept. 5th can be read as a kind of romantic guide for people who are beginning to stare down their twenties in the rearview, who are considering investing a big chunk of themselves into another person. As dvsn tell it, there will be plenty of heat—the languid "In + Out" is exactly what you think it is—but also a few complications. "Try / Effortless" has Daley struggling to put his pride aside as he considers a commitment; "Another One" is a cheating song that only deals with the act's existential aftermath; grand finale "The Line" is a seven-minute proposal that lingers in the comfort and ecstasy that love can bring. "At the end of it all I'm coming back to you," Daley concludes, as a woman's voice echoes in the cavernous expanse around him.

The project's purposeful anonymity has a few drawbacks. Though Prince is a clear influence, dvsn barely hint at the idiosyncratic kinkiness or sense of play that drives so much of that icon's music. And aside from the album's title, there's a slightly frustrating lack of specificity to be found in these songs; perhaps this is meant as a generous sign of universality, but it can also come across as unimaginative. Then again, considering the unseemly baggage R&B fans are presented with while listening to R. Kelly or Chris Brown, dvsn's namelessness can offer its own relief. "In art, the confident gesture, loud or quiet, is of highest importance," Ratliff writes in his book. "By extension, the acknowledgement of the human behind it… is secondary, if relevant at all." This group is wise and capable enough to eschew nearly every shortcut of today's personality-first music culture and dial into the silence between the noise. It's what confidence sounds like.

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